Peace Journalism Tips for All Journalists
Today I am joining a discussion at Kennesaw State University about setting up a possible peace studies minor. In anticipation of the meeting, I did a little web surfing and found 17 tips at the Media Channel for practicing peace journalism. They are fantastic tips that every journalist should think about in every story.
Here are a six of them:
1. AVOID portraying a conflict as consisting of only two parties contesting one goal. The logical outcome is for one to win and the other to lose. INSTEAD, a Peace Journalist would DISAGGREGATE the two parties into many smaller groups, pursuing many goals, opening up more creative potential for a range of outcomes.
2. AVOID letting parties define themselves by simply quoting their leaders’ restatement of familiar demands or positions. INSTEAD, inquire more deeply into goals:
- How are people on the ground affected by the conflict in everyday life?
- What do they want changed?
- Is the position stated by their leaders the only way or the best way to achieve the changes they want?
3. AVOID concentrating always on what divides the parties, the differences between what they say they want. INSTEAD, try asking questions that may reveal areas of common ground and leading your report with answers which suggest some goals maybe shared or at least compatible, after all.
4. AVOID focusing exclusively on the suffering, fears and grievances of only one party. This divides the parties into “villains” and “victims” and suggests that coercing or punishing the villains represents a solution. INSTEAD, treat as equally newsworthy the suffering, fears and grievance of all sides.
And here is a nice controversial one:
5. AVOID demonizing labels like “terrorist,” “extremist,” “fanatic” and “fundamentalist.” These are always given by “us” to “them.” No one ever uses them to describe himself or herself, and so, for a journalist to use them is always to take sides. They mean the person is unreasonable, so it seems to make less sense to reason (negotiate) with them. INSTEAD, try calling people by the names they give themselves. Or be more precise in your descriptions.
6. AVOID waiting for leaders on “our” side to suggest or offer solutions. INSTEAD, pick up and explore peace initiatives wherever they come from. Ask questions to ministers, for example, about ideas put forward by grassroots organizations. Assess peace perspectives against what you know about the issues the parties are really trying to address. Do not simply ignore them because they do not coincide with established positions.
October 12th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Doug McGill has been writing along similar lines lately.
(Journalism as a healing art)